Election 2008: Who People in Ohio Should Vote For

Editor's note: the name of the incumbent candidate is italicized, while the candidate we're endorsing is in bold.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Congressional District 1

Steve Chabot (R)

Steve Driehaus (D)

Cincinnati boy Chabot has never wavered from his belief that small government is good government, not even during his party's fat years in the majority.Esquire endorses: Chabot

District 2

Jean Schmidt (R)

Victoria Wulsin (D)

Jean Schmidt is the worst kind of partisan hack, driven by resentments and full of agendas that have nothing to do with governing. She and her cohort of fellow extremists are what happens when the pendulum swings too far to either side and gets stuck there for too long. The country should be rid of them. We endorse her opponent, who is a medical doctor.Esquire endorses: Wulsin

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District 3

Mike Turner (R)

Jane Mitakides (D)

No need for change here. Turner's stint as mayor of Dayton was marked by effective public-private revitalization projects and by his surprising success as a Republican in a largely Democratic town. In Congress, he has quickly become a bridge between his party and the urban Democratic caucus.Esquire endorses: Turner

A fiscal conservative who also protects farming interests, Latta's a good fit.Esquire endorses: Latta

District 6

Dick Stobbs (R)

Charlie Wilson (D)

Among Blue Dog Democrats, Charlie Wilson's anti-Bush stance on our current war management stands out. But his vote for an increase in the minimum wage reveals his true loyalty: to the blue-collar folks who make up his base.Esquire endorses: Wilson

District 7

Steve Austria (R)

Sharen Neuhardt (D)

Voters in Ohio's Seventh District face a choice: the rather cynical moral posturing that is Steve Austria's MO, or the skeptical independence that characterized retiring Republican Dave Hobson's leadership.Esquire endorses: Neuhardt

District 8

John Boehner (R)

Nick von Stein (D)

Boehner and his cronies have done quite enough. It is essential to the correction begun in 2006 that the minority leader be retired. Period.Esquire endorses: von Stein

District 9

Bradley Leavitt (R)

Marcy Kaptur (D)

They don't make 'em like Marcy Kaptur anymore. Utterly uninterested in Beltway power, she is one of the longest serving yet least senior members of the House. It's because she's always served her constituents before sating her political masters.Esquire endorses: Kaptur

District 10

Jim Trakas (R)

Dennis Kucinich (D)

If we'd listened to Dennis Kucinich, we'd never have gone to Iraq, turned our budget surplus into a deficit, left Katrina victims to rot, or let our companies steal the pensions they'd promised their workers. Clearly he's insane.Esquire endorses: Kucinich

District11

Thomas Pekarek (R)

Marcia Fudge (D)

Fudge, currently mayor of Warrensville Heights, won the right to replace the late Stephanie Tubbs Jones on the Democratic ballot in November. And as a former chief of staff to Tubbs Jones, she matches her local expertise with unbeatable Washington experience.Esquire endorses: Fudge

District 12

Pat Tiberi (R)

David Robinson (D)

When not writing important resolutions like the one recognizing the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, Tiberi plays Igor to John Boehner's Dr. Frankenstein. His latest act of madness: working to speed the building of a uranium-enrichment plant in southern Ohio.Esquire endorses: Robinson

District 13

Dave Potter (R)

Betty Sutton (D)

For a freshman, Sutton has vigorously championed a cause unpopular with both parties in the House: openness about the influence of lobbyists on the Hill.Esquire endorses: Sutton

District 14

Steve LaTourette (R)

Bill O'Neill (D)

Took money from DeLay's people, then sat on the ethics panel that reprimanded him? Check. Backed out of two promises to limit the length of his service? Check. Should be defeated? Check!Esquire endorses: O'Neill

District 15

Steve Stivers (R)

Mary Jo Kilroy (D)

Open seat. Deborah Pryce, seemingly saddened by the nastiness (on both sides) of her reelection campaign two years ago, is retiring. Centrist Kilroy's eight years as Franklin County commissioner made her an expert on regional issues from budgets to crime to health care. Stivers's five years in the state senate seem like something of an extension of his earlier career: lobbyist.Esquire endorses: Kilroy

District 16

Kirk Schuring (R)

John Boccieri (D)

"We could never have a rally like this in the center of Canton," said Kirk Schuring at a rally in genteel Ashland, Ohio, in June. "If we did, we might be shot at." Hilarious, considering Canton is a) the economic heart of Schuring's state-senate district, and b) full of, you know, brown and black folk.Esquire endorses: Boccieri

District 17

Duane Grassell (R)

Tim Ryan (D)

As the representative for economically devastated Youngstown, Ryan has more incentive than most to stay on top of federal trade deals. He does so with gusto.Esquire endorses: Ryan

District18

Fred Dailey (R)

Zack Space (D)

Space ousted Abramoff-linked Bob Ney in 2006. Ney went on to live for a while in federal prison, and the ethics issues raised by Ney's rank corruption have become his successor's cause.Esquire endorses: Space